Buen Vivir and the Challenges to Capitalism in Latin America (Routledge Critical Development Studies)

This book explores the battleground between neoliberal capitalist development processes in Latin America and the challenges to these systems that can be found through innovative community-driven __buen vivir/vivir bien__ initiatives. In the current climate of worldwide capitalist development, Latin America is caught between left-leaning proposals for progressive policies towards a more inclusive form of development, and the re-emergence of harsh austerity measures, neoliberal reforms and right-wing populism. Divided into two parts, this book first provides a retrospective analysis of the advance of resource-seeking ‘extractive’ capital across the continent since the 1990s. The second part goes on to focus on forward-looking challenges to neoliberal capitalist development, focusing in particular on the indigenous notion of __buen vivir/vivir bien__ – the concept of ‘living well’ in social solidarity and harmony with nature. Drawing on cases in Mexico and Venezuela, the book argues that it will be through these new approaches to social change that we will move beyond development as we know it towards a more inclusive form of ‘postdevelopment’. Looking hopefully towards this future of development, this collection offers an essential analysis of the vortex of social change currently consuming Latin America and will be key reading for advanced scholars and researchers in the fields of Development Studies, Latin America Studies, Politics, and Social Change. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 List of illustrations 8 List of contributors 9 Introduction 14 A chapter-by-chapter synopsis 15 Reference 23 Chapter 1: In the vortex of social change 24 The new geoeconomics and geopolitics of capital 24 The political economy of extractive capitalism 25 The contradictions of capitalism 28 Resource nationalism, left-wing populism and poverty reduction 30 The end of the progressive cycle? The swing to the right of the pendulum of electoral politics 33 Conclusion 34 Notes 37 References 38 Part I: Development in the neoliberal era 42 Chapter 2: Extractive capitalism: development and resistance dynamics 44 Agrarian change as a lever of capital accumulation 45 From the Washington Consensus to neodevelopmentalism 47 The new geoeconomics of capital: the dynamics of foreign direct investment inflows 49 A new economic model: new developmentalism and extractivism 50 A new enclosure of the commons? 53 Resistance on the extractive frontier 57 Conclusion 58 Notes 59 References 60 Chapter 3: Capitalism on the frontier of agroextractivism 63 The emergence of Silicon Valley’s imperial innovation system3 65 Agribusiness in the imperialist innovation agenda 67 The new political economy of agriculture: extractive capital and agroextraction 69 The dynamics of the resistance: the Zapatista initiative 73 Conclusion 75 Notes 76 References 79 Chapter 4: Social movements and the state in the post-neoliberal era 84 Latin America’s ‘left turn’ 85 Anti-statist autonomism 85 Postneoliberalism and the symbiotic approach 87 Toward a popular-democratic synthesis 88 MORENA’s historical victory 89 The peasantry and political-cultural class formation 91 Food sovereignty: a major challenge to MORENA, 2018–2024 95 The Agrarian Law 95 Rural development planning 96 Farmworkers 97 Mining, Aeolic, geothermic and other megaprojects 98 Conclusions 99 References 99 Chapter 5: The syncopated dance of Mexico’s industrial policy 105 Introduction 105 Mexico’s industrial policy: from import substitution industrialisation (ISI) to market fundamentalism 106 Querétaro: a local industrial policy to link Mexico into the global aerospace value chain 110 Jalisco: concerted policies to shape the software and computing industry 116 Conclusions 121 Note 122 Bibliography 122 Chapter 6: Communes in Venezuela in times of crisis 126 The council system 126 Community as class: the shared experience of marginalisation and struggle 129 Historical and theoretical roots of the local self-government structures 130 The communal state 132 Conflicts and contradictions 134 The example of the El Maizal Commune 137 Conclusions 139 Notes 142 References 142 Part II: Antinomies of development: constructing analternative reality 146 Chapter 7: Neoextractivism and development 148 Interviews by the author 144 Extractivism and neoextractivism 148 Neoextractivism as a ‘privileged window’ on capitalist development in the region 150 Neoextractivism as a socioterritorial development model 153 The commodities consensus and the developmentist illusion 155 Notes 159 References 159 Chapter 8: Paradoxes of development in the Andes and Amazonia 162 Extractivist economic growth and social achievements 164 The loss of environmental wealth in the period of the economic boom 169 Exporting primary economies and degrees of diversification 173 Conclusions 179 Notes 181 References 183 Chapter 9: Uchronia for living well 187 Towards a political socioecology of time for living well 188 Good life expectancy (GLE) 195 From the excluded and exploited of history: Living well as an uchronia 197 Epilogue: uchronias and chronopolitics 199 Notes 204 References 205 Chapter 10: Disputes over capitalism and varieties of development 207 Between acceptance and criticism 207 Rhetoric and practice: politics, economics and justice 208 Varieties of capitalism 213 Varieties of development 214 Disputes about varieties of development 216 Alternatives to development and 219 Exhaustions and alternatives 222 Notes 224 References 224 Index 227 "This book critically explores the development and resistance dynamics generated by conflicting forces of social change in Latin America. In the current climate of worldwide capitalist development, Latin America is caught between left-leaning proposals for progressive policies towards a more inclusive form of development, and the re-emergence of harsh austerity measures, neoliberal reforms and right-wing populism. Divided into two parts, this book first provides a retrospective analysis of these forces of change, which are inherently tied up in politics on both an international and a domestic scale. The second part goes on to focus on forward-looking challenges, particularly as relates to the worldview and vision of alternative realities embedded in the indigenous notion of Vivir Bien - the concept of 'living well' in social solidarity and harmony with nature. This idea has radically transformed the thinking about 'development', which has traditionally revolved around the policy and institutional dynamics associated with the evolution of capitalism as a world system. The notion of Vivir Bien takes us beyond the world of development as we know it, into what might be understood as a form of 'postdevelopment'. Looking hopefully towards this future of development, this collection offers an essential analysis of the vortex of social change currently consuming Latin America and is key reading for advanced scholars and researchers in the field"-- Provided by publisher